Our next New
York Rotary meeting on May 27th will be Armed Forces Day with
Stephen G. Brozak as the speaker. He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the
United States Marine Corps, where he served from 1982 to 2003. You can read
more about Stephen Brozak in the latest Bulletin on the Internet at http://ussterilizer.com/bulletin_05_27_2003a.pdf (click on
the link).

The Bulletin
also asks members, who served in the Armed Forces to call our office in order
to be announced at the meeting. New York Rotary Board Director Lou DiPaolo, for example is a retired Marine.
Lou fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima, which was one of the most costly battles
of the Pacific campaign of World War II. About 6800 United States personnel
(including about 6000 Marines) lost their lives in capturing the island from
the Japanese. I am sure that Lou and Stephen Brozak could swap a few Marine
stories between them.

David Gibbs has written the Reporter of the Week. Dave became a
member of our legendary Rotary Club last year. His classification is Boy Scouts
and he is the Manhattan Scout Executive. Thank you Dave for a detailed report
about the speech last week by Clint Bolick, Esq. I especially enjoyed it,
because I am still in Sweden and missed the meeting.

The $100,000
donation to Polio Plus by the New York Rotary Foundation has created a lot of
attention in Rotary. I received the following message from District Governor
Bob Benson:

Be sure to look at the Rotary International
web site under "Rotary News" on the home page. There is a
well-deserved article recognizing the Polio Plus donation by the New York club.
My heartfelt thanks go to the club' s foundation and all its members for making
this happen.

Rotary
News Basket

No. 810 ó 21 May 2003

New York club's
foundation donates US$100,000 to PEFC

A decision to donate
US$100,000 is not made lightly ó no matter how large the organization ó yet
when the foundation of the Rotary Club of New York received such a request for
the polio eradication fundraising campaign (PEFC),
it wasted no time in saying yes. On 29 April, during the regular weekly meeting
of the club, which has nearly 200 members, the foundation presented a check for
the total amount to a pleasantly surprised Past District Governor Jack Blane,
International PEFC adviser.

"I was
expecting to go and be part of a photo op where I would receive a large
cardboard replica of the check," says Blane. "What I didn't expect
was to come away with a real check for the total amount.

"That's the
beauty of [the gift], that's what we're encouraging."

Although clubs and
foundations have the option of spreading their pledges over 36 months, cash is
urgently needed to purchase vaccine and deliver it to the children in the few
remaining countries where the poliovirus continues to circulate. To this end,
large Rotary clubs with foundations have been encouraged to make leadership
gifts to the PEFC, setting an example for others to follow.

"The trustees
of the New York Rotary foundation feel very keenly about supporting this last
push and enthusiastically agreed to the $100,000 donation," says Morton
Eydenberg, chairman of the foundation. "The members of the Rotary Club of
New York have also expressed their support for this donation and are proud to
lead the way for other Rotary clubs around the world."

Since the tragic
events of 11 September, the New York club's foundation has been actively
involved in the disbursement of more than $1.4 million to families affected by
the attacks on New York. Yet even while taking on this tremendous
responsibility, the foundation has continued to raise funds to support the
club's annual commitments, which include the Gift of Life Donor program; Taller
Boricua, a community arts organization for minority students; and Museum Kids,
a program organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Arts to introduce painters
and sculptors to minority children and their families.

"All involved
here are wishing for a 2005 celebration when polio is eradicated from the face
of the earth," says Eydenberg.

Rotary Internationalís President for 2004-2005 Glenn Estess has
said that the New York Rotary
Foundation with its $100,000 donation to Polio Plus set an example of
leadership and generosity that he hoped others would follow. Compassionate
Rotarians around the world are now responding.

†Our District 7230 Group Study Exchange Team
is now in the middle of their visit to District 9250. I recently received a
report about them from Bertie and Alita le Roux in South Africa:

Matts

I almost feel as I have met you
personally. This from feedback received from the GSE team as well as
having had the opportunity to read your newsletter. Fantastic to see how
"new" technology can advance communication across the globe.
Thanks!!

I only wish to congratulate and thank you for
being offered the benefits of meeting the GSE team. - "Congratulate" because I/we
experienced them as an excellent/great bunch full of life and zest and willing
and also hoping, to experience as much as possible of South Africa. What
ambassadors of your district 7230 !!!

Secondly thanks for
being offered the opportunity (and privilege) to show them Pretoria - cultural,
historical and fun events and being able to host them as well. We ended
up spending long hours in each others presence covering the globe and never was
time of essence - could have done with some extra days though. My fellow
Rotarians Wim Louw and Mike Vlok can only echo me. Strange that none of
them wanted to leave our houses but duty calls and off they went to the Guest
House and on Sunday to Swaziland. It could have been the ladies but I can
assure you - fun were had by all.

Trust that they will have a wonderful trip
further north.

Regards and keep up the good work.

Bertie and Alita le Roux

Thanks also to Ivan Vosloo who briefed them so
well. They often corrected me on my own country and its history.

Thank you Bertie and Alita for your message. It
is a great statement about the success of our GSE Project. It is difficult to
select the right members for a GSE Team. The way that you describe them to be,
makes me feel that our GSE Committee made the right choices. During the
selection process, I was hoping that we selected the very same kind of team that
you just described them to be. When I visited different Rotary Clubs in our
district to generate interest for team member applications, I always emphasized
the challenges, the opportunities and the demands of the trip. I never said
that it would be easy for the team. In return, we received applicants, who were
all highly qualified, full of energy and eager to travel. They were ready
to take on the challenges and I am glad to see that they are now living up to
them.

Last week I told you that our Group Study
Exchange Program had great support from The Rotary Foundation. Since then, I
received the following message from Ann Tierney, our GSE
Coordinator at Rotary International:

Thank you for your very nice compliment in
including me in your newsletter! It is great to hear feedback from
Rotarians, as well as to hear all of the wonderful things everyone in your
district and the African district had to say about this GSE that took
place. I passed your newsletter on to the GSE Department for everyone else
to read about your GSE success story, and they really enjoyed reading it.

Thank you for all of your help in making GSEs
successful across the world!

Best regards,

Ann Tierney
Group Study Exchange Coordinator
The Rotary Foundation †

Thank you Ann! It is nice to here from you. I
also received a message from Annís colleague Natalie Uyeno:

It was a pleasure meeting you during your
visit to RI World Headquarters

Thank you Natalie for your condolences. I know
that both you and Ann work very hard to make the GSE Program successful. I
mentioned before that Ann is responsible for the GSE Programs in 216 different
Rotary Districts. I believe that Natalie is responsible for a similar number of
Rotary Districts. I am glad that as GSE Chairman, I only have to be responsible
for one district.

Last week, I
again visited the Rotary Club of Huddinge (outside Stockholm). This time I
brought with me Nils Sandstedt, who 48 years ago was a charter member of this
Rotary Club. He is today the only surviving charter member. Nils was at my
fatherís funeral and asked me if he could come along to the next Huddinge
Rotary meeting. He had been a Pharmacist in Huddinge during the 50ís, but was
transferred out-of-town in 1960. Nils continued to be a Rotarian for many
years, but when he retired from the Pharmacy business about 20 years ago, he
also resigned from Rotary. When I brought him back to his original Rotary Club,
the members were very happy to see him. Maybe they can convince Nils to rejoin
Rotary again. I donít think that you can be too old to be a Rotarian.

Don't forget
to reserve your table for our next meeting. You can reserve via e-mail to our
office at ny.rotary@verizon.net, or call Andreas or Ana at 212-633-1311. You
can also fax in the RSVP form, which you can download at. http://ussterilizer.com/rsvp_05-27-2003.pdf

Our fax
number is 212-633-1954. Princeton Club's culinary staff will serve us Veal.

†

Our
Executive Director Andreas has asked me to emphasize the importance of making
reservations for Armed Forces Day and the following week's Italy Day meetings.
Andreas, I myself will remain in Sweden until May 31st, so I will
not be able to attend Armed Forces Day, but please take my reservation for
Italy Day on June 3rd. I will be back in town by then for sure.

The power of the
Internet puts the brains of millions of people together. It also puts 1.2
million Rotarians together. It does not matter where we are and when we are
available. The Internet makes it possible for Rotarians around the world to
instantly participate.

I want to thank our Executive Director
Andreas Runggatscher and his Executive Assistant Ana Rivas for working so hard
every week creating and mailing the Weekly Bulletin. In addition to mailing it
out to our members, they also send me the electronic Bulletin so I can upload
it on our website. They are also working very hard with the administration of
the World Trade Center - Disaster Relief
Fund.

In order to read the
PDF file of the Bulletin-on-the-Web, you need the latest version of the Acrobat
Reader (Version 5.0). If you don't have Acrobat Reader 5.0, you can download it
for free from the web at:

You need Windows Media Player to listen to
Rotary Radio. Windows Media Player is included with Windows Millennium and
Windows XP. If you use Windows 95 or Windows 98, you can download Windows Media
Player for free from Microsoft.